EA shuttering SimCity Social, The Sims Social and Pet Society on June 14th

For awhile, it looked like EA was ready to stake a large part of its gaming future on social networking, introducing Facebook-oriented ports like SimCity Social and The Sims Social as well as more original titles. The game publisher isn't quite ready to be a social butterfly, it turns out: following an earlier cull that focused heavily on sports-themed web games, EA is axing SimCity Social, The Sims Social and Pet Society on June 14th. There's no mystery to the shutdown, as EA explains that strong initial demand rapidly tapered off -- name recognition got the company's foot in the door, but didn't keep it there. Gamers who feel jilted should soon get an incentive to switch to more popular games from EA's PopCap studio. We're all in favor of shifting resources to where they'll be truly appreciated, although we can't help but feel sorry for SimCity fans that have just been burned twice in a row.